Most Republicans approve of McCarthy’s election after messy Speaker battle: poll

Most Republicans approve of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) election to lead the House following a marathon vote that took more than three days last week, according to a new poll. 

An Economist-YouGov poll released Thursday showed 59 percent of Republicans approve of McCarthy being elected Speaker, while 21 percent disapprove and 20 percent are not sure.

 

A plurality of 46 percent of Republicans surveyed said they are not sure if they approve of how McCarthy is handling his job, while 42 percent said they strongly or somewhat approve. Only 12 percent said they strongly or somewhat disapprove of his performance. 

The poll showed a comfortable plurality of Republicans approved of McCarthy’s performance as minority leader throughout the Biden administration while he held that role. 

Republicans are much more optimistic about McCarthy’s ability to be an effective Speaker than Democrats or independents. Pollsters found 44 percent of Republicans expect him to be effective in his position, while only 19 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of independents said the same. 

More than half of all Democrats surveyed and almost a third of independents said he will not be effective. 

McCarthy eventually won the Speakership after the House conducted 15 ballots, its longest vote for a speaker since before the Civil War. 

He had the backing of most of the Republican conference throughout the votes, but about 20 hard-line members held out their support, denying him victory. They eventually either voted for him or voted “present,” abstaining to allow him to clinch the win with a lower threshold to reach a majority of votes. 

But McCarthy needed to agree to multiple concessions to win their support, including allowing for a single member of the Republican conference to make a motion to remove the Speaker from their position, which would force the House to take a vote. 

McCarthy negotiated with those opposed to him over the course of weeks leading up to the vote, giving them numerous concessions, including commitments to launch committees to investigate the Biden administration in various areas. 

That led some of McCarthy’s supporters to express frustration with his detractors for refusing to support him despite a number of their demands being met. 

The YouGov poll found Republicans were split evenly, 34 percent to 34 percent, about whether McCarthy’s opponents were voting against him to give themselves more power or because they had serious concerns about McCarthy. Independents were also closely divided on that question, but Democrats overwhelmingly said they believe the detractors’ opposition was about gaining power. 

The poll was conducted from Jan. 7 to Jan. 10 among 1,500 U.S. adults. The margin of error was about 3 points.